Adventure on the Burning Island

On the burning island, the enormous dragon lowers its horned head over the Straw Hats and the ruined stonework. Smoke curls around its body and the whole place feels unstable under its weight. The beast gives a strange sound: "Rrrrrgghhhhh...!!!" Usopp recoils first and shouts, "Hey!! It just spoke!!!" Zoro rejects the idea immediately: "Not a chance!! You're hearing things!!!" Robin, still trying to reason through what she is seeing, answers, "You think so...? It's hard enough to believe that a dragon exists at all without it talking as well!!! Yet its form is unmistakably the same as the imaginary creature..." The page keeps the crew caught between disbelief and danger: the dragon itself is impossible enough, and now even its voice may be real.

The dragon's throat opens and the danger becomes unmistakable. Luffy and the others barely have time to understand what is coming before the beast releases a huge blast of flame through the ruins. The reaction cuts through the panic: "Don't tell me...!!" The fire erupts across the page, swallowing stone, smoke, and the crew's escape path. Everyone is thrown into a desperate scramble as the shout stretches into the blast: "Whoaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaa!!!" The page is not just an attack panel; it proves that the creature is not a legend or decoration. It breathes fire, and the Straw Hats are suddenly fighting something that belongs in a myth.

The fire blast tears across the ruins, and Usopp finally names what just happened: "It breathed fire!!!" Smoke and debris fill the page while the dragon's huge neck coils through the burning air. Luffy is thrilled rather than frightened, laughing, "Ahaha haha!!" Zoro, already sprinting with his swords, says, "This is getting interesting...!!" Usopp, overwhelmed by the impossibility of the scene, cries, "Owowowo wowwww!!! This thing can't exist!! I must be dreaming!!" Luffy does not stop to debate the dream; he swings himself into position and begins, "Gomu Gomu no..." The page turns the encounter from shock into action, with Luffy launching himself straight toward the dragon while the others race through the flames.

Luffy drives his fist into the dragon with "Jet Bullet!!!" The impact crashes into the beast's face, but instead of collapsing, the dragon only snarls and keeps moving. Its body grinds through the ruins with "Rrrghhhhhhh...!!!" and the Straw Hats are forced to keep dodging its massive frame. Luffy lands nearby and notices the problem at once: "Whoa!! Its skin is really hard!!" Another small sound, "Hm?", marks that something about the situation still does not fit. The punch connected cleanly, yet the dragon's hide barely gives way. The page establishes that brute force alone will not be simple here; this enemy is not only huge and fire-breathing, but armored by an unusually tough body.

The dragon answers Luffy's strike by smashing through more of the burning ruins, sending rocks and smoke outward as it roars, "Ggrr rrrhah hhh!!!" The crash throws Luffy away and Usopp screams, "Luffy!!!" Zoro stands closer to the beast, calm enough to invite the fight: "Go on. Try it." The strange voice also returns, taunting from the middle of the chaos: "I can feel your presence, pfft!!!" Someone nearby only reacts with "Huh?" The page makes the confusion sharper. Zoro is ready to cut the dragon, Luffy is being tossed around by the collision, and the unexplained speaker is now clearly sensing people rather than just making random animal sounds.

The dragon swings through the ruins again, and Luffy is flung with a long cry of "Whooaaaaaaa!!" The shock of the voice is no longer only Usopp's imagination; Zoro states, "Luffy's right... This thing really can talk!!" Usopp calls toward him, "Samurai!!!" while a note on the page explains the attack name as a pun on "ultra" and "tora-gari" meaning "tiger hunt." Zoro draws himself into a cutting stance and completes the technique: "Ul... ...Tora-Gari!!!" The blade flashes against the dragon's hard body. The page pushes two things at once: Zoro is escalating to a named sword attack, and the voice issue has become undeniable enough that even Zoro accepts it.

Zoro's sword strike bites into the dragon and the beast howls, "Ngwoooohhhhh!!!" Zoro grits his teeth at the resistance and says, "Ugh...!!! What's up with its strength and its toughness?!" The dragon crashes forward again, roaring, "Rgggghh, ghhhhh!!!" Luffy, furious now, shouts from the side, "...Nnnn ghhh!!! You're going down for that!!!" He rushes back toward the beast as the ruins splinter around them. The page keeps the physical facts very clear: Zoro can hurt the creature, but even his cut does not simply end the fight. The dragon remains mobile, loud, and powerful enough to keep both Luffy and Zoro struggling.

The battle suddenly becomes stranger. Luffy hears the voice again and calls, "It talked!!! See?! I told you!!" He also shouts, "Luffy!!" as the action scatters across the burning ground. Usopp and Robin listen from the smoke; Usopp admits, "I heard it talk too ...but how?!" Robin remains silent, watching. The unseen speaker then reveals the target of its suspicion: "Pfft!! Are you friends of the Shichibukai?!" At the same time the dragon roars, "Ggrr rrhah hhh!!!" and its movement sends Luffy flying with "Whoaa aahhh hhh!!!" The page is important because the voice says something specific and political. It is not the mindless dragon asking; someone connected to the dragon's body is accusing them of ties to the Shichibukai.

Robin lands near the hot wall of flame and gasps, "Aaaaghhhh!! So hot!! And it talked again too!!!" She thinks through the clue: "It mentioned the Shichibukai... Does it have some kind of grudge against them...?" Nearby, Zoro wants to take the fight over: "Luffy!! Let me handle this thing!! I'll slice it to pieces!!!" Luffy answers from the attack line, "I'll smack it down to you!!" and Zoro agrees, "All right then!!" The dragon begins another fiery motion, and Luffy shifts into the plan: "In that case..." Usopp panics with "Owo wowowow ...!!" The page organizes the chaos into teamwork. Robin is gathering meaning from the voice, while Luffy and Zoro turn the dragon's body into a target they can coordinate against.

Luffy launches himself toward the dragon and shouts, "Whoa!!" while the beast's heat and momentum fill the page. He is thrown close enough to feel the creature's body and notices, "Even its body is hot..." The mysterious voice complains from near the dragon's body, "Ow... Oww w..." Luffy pauses, confused: "Huh!??" Then the same voice suddenly finds the burning island pleasant: "Pfft... Ahhh, this coolness is wonderful!!!" It even declares, "These flames are so refreshing!!!" The contradiction is the point of the page. The dragon is burning-hot to Luffy, but the hidden speaker experiences the flames as cool relief, suggesting that the speaker's real situation and body are nothing like what the crew first assumed.

The crew finally sees the absurd truth: there is a person stuck right in the dragon's head. Usopp yells, "Hey, you guys!! It's terrible!! There's a person!!" and Zoro adds, "He's stuck right into the dragon's head!!!" Usopp stares at the situation and cries, "Huhhh?! What kind of situation is that?!" The narration-like line clarifies the earlier mystery: "Then the voice we heard was..." Luffy has already clamped onto the dragon and bites down, saying, "Why, you......! Have a bite of this wing, why don't you?!" The dragon reacts with "Ah!" and "Ahh!" before Luffy scolds it cheerfully: "Shi shishi!! Stupid dragon!!" The page resolves the talking-dragon confusion without making the dragon itself intelligent: the voice belongs to the human body embedded in it.

The fight reaches its finish in rapid fragments. The dragon thrashes and groans, "Guooorg ghhhhhh!!!" Usopp calls his attack, "...!! All right then!! Hissatsu Midoriboshi!!" and snaps a seed with "Snap!" Zoro warns from below, "Zoro!! It's coming down!!" and then prepares his own technique: "Ittou-Ryuu..." A large plant bursts open like a "Trampolia!!!" under the dragon, helping launch and redirect the massive body. Zoro completes the cut with "Iai...!!" while the dragon drops through the ruined air with "Uor gghh hh!!" The page is a coordinated takedown: Usopp creates the opening with a trampoline-like plant, Zoro times the sword draw, and the dragon's huge fall becomes the setup for the decisive strike.

Zoro's finishing strike dominates the spread: "Shi Shishi Sonson!!!!!" The sword cut passes through the dragon's thick body despite the toughness that resisted earlier attacks. Usopp watches from below and bursts out, "Whooahh!! Awesome!!!" Luffy laughs, "Ahahah ahah!!" and immediately thinks with his stomach: "This dragon looks tasty!!" Usopp follows the idea instead of rejecting it, saying, "We can barbecue it in the island's flames!" The spread closes the battle with a mix of spectacle and comedy. Zoro proves the dragon can be cut, while Luffy and Usopp treat the fallen mythical creature as food almost the instant the danger is handled.

The scene cuts away from the burning battlefield to the Thousand Sunny at sea. A location tag reads, "Southwest of the island; The Thousand Sunny." Sanji stands happily on deck with a tray and calls out, "Nnnnami-saaaaaaaan! This time I have brought you..." He offers "A refreshingly-cool deep-water fish crepe!" and "And a little champagne to..." only to realize, "Hm?! They're asleep..." A heavy mist surrounds the deck, and Sanji notices, "...Mist?" Then he chokes: "Urrg hh!!" On deck, Nami, Franky, Chopper, and Brook lie unconscious while Sanji resists the gas: "No...!! Damn it... I've already breathed in quite a bit of the stuff!!" He identifies the threat: "This gas must've sent them to sleep!! Is it natural?! Or is somebody else on board...?!!" He thinks of the others: "...!! The others, on the island, got the Baby Den-Den Mushi... I might be able to...!!!"

Sanji drags himself through the sleeping gas, thinking, "I've gotta ...let them know..." but collapses before he can finish. Figures in full protective suits emerge through the mist as Sanji coughs, "Koh.. Koh.." One reports, "Two humans, one humanoid iron creature ...and one pet ..." Another orders, "Tie them all up." A subordinate replies, "Roger that!!" The suited intruders identify the unconscious Straw Hats as useful prey: "They're pirates... Perfect... We will offer them to our master..." Another adds, "Nobody will raise a fuss over the disappearance of a few pirates..." The page reveals that the mist is not a natural accident. The Sunny has been boarded, the crew members left behind have been counted, and the attackers intend to hand them over to someone above them.

Back on Punk Hazard, Luffy tries to free the person attached to the dragon and says, "I'm pulling him out!!" The unseen man protests, "Hey!! Who are you people?! Get your hands off me, pfft!" Luffy insists, "I'm gonna pull you out of there, so hold still!! One, two, and..." With a loud "Pop!!" the body comes loose, but what comes free is not a whole man. The legs and lower half tumble away, and the speaker screams, "Aaaaghhhh!!! He came apart!! I'm sorry!!!" Usopp yells, "You idiot!! As if 'sorry' is going to make any difference!! You've killed him!!" The separated legs stand up and speak: "Ahh!! It seems I have been pulled free, pfft!!" Luffy stares and shouts, "He talked!!! What is he, a zombie?!" Usopp breaks down: "It's a monsteeeeer!!!" The chapter ending caption appears: "66 The Path Toward the Sun (End)."

The leg-only man remains standing before the Straw Hats, and Robin calmly points out the physical impossibility: "How strange. I don't see any signs of the other half of his body. Then... He was only half a body to begin with?!" Luffy studies him and says, "He's pretty big, too..." The man explains his strange awareness: "I can sense that people are here and what they are doing by their presence..." Luffy answers bluntly, "You're a pretty weird guy, huh...?" The man replies, "But alas... I have no eyes or ears...!!" Then he spins into motion and declares, "Pfft!! I do not know who you are, but you will not stand in my way!! I cannot afford to perish in such a place as this, pfft!!!" Luffy reaches after him, yelling, "Wait up!! You have got to join my crew!!!" but the legs flee while shouting, "Accursed Shichibukai...!!!" Usopp cries, "Noooooooo!!!" and someone calls, "Ahh!! He ran off!!"

No description for this page.